So this little adventure is over. England were comprehensively beaten by 19 runs. Despite a defiant lone hand from Samit Patel, who relished taking on the Sri Lanka spinners in an innings of 67 from 48 balls, the target of 170 was way beyond them. Even with an experienced, in-form batting line-up this would have been a steep task since the totals are getting smaller and smaller as the tournament progresses. Against such a callow collection of young Englishmen, albeit gifted ones, it was far too much.

The run chase disintegrated as early as the third over, bowled by Lasith Malinga, who captured three wickets in six balls and was then removed from the attack even though he was on a hat-trick, a rare occurrence in any form of the game.

Malinga's first wicket came from a short wide delivery, which was cut hard by Luke Wright straight to Tillekeratne Dilshan at backward point. There might have been a run-out from Jonny Bairstow's first ball, a yorker, but amid the chaos there were two overthrows instead. Next came another slower one, which a duped Bairstow scooped straight to mid-off.

Then Alex Hales received yet another slower one, yorker length, and he was given lbw even though the TV replay suggested the ball was missing the leg-stump. Six balls, three runs and three wickets would be enough to stymie any run chase and were certainly enough to expose England's naivety. These young batsmen had hardly any experience against this unique style of bowling; they were in uncharted territory. They may have studied and listened but very few of these players had faced Malinga and he exploited that ruthlessly.

But for Patel England would have been humiliated. He does not lack self-belief and could be seen muttering around the team hotel at his latest omission. Undoubtedly he would have played in the semi-final if England had managed to get there. He alone offered any resistance until Graeme Swann swung merrily at the end. There was an early on-driven six from Patel against Angelo Mathews but most impressive was the way he played the spinners.

He took the attack to Ajantha Mendis by staying on the back foot and cutting him through the off-side. His judgment of length against the spinners was precise and he hit with power and superb placement. But no one could stay with him for long, not even Eoin Morgan, who was lbw reverse-sweeping.

Patel batted with endearing freedom as did most of the Sri Lankans who batted with the carefree abandon of a side who knew that they were already bound for the semi-finals.

Tillekaratne Dilshan thrashed the ball through the covers one moment but the next he was lbw to Steven Finn thrashing again. Mahela Jayawardene, as ever, was as cultured as it is possible to be in this form of the game, delicately guiding the ball into the gaps and then effortlessly flicking the ball over the leg-side boundary off Jade Dernbach.

Then he miscalculated against Swann. and another elegant leg-side clip found the alert Eoin Morgan at deep mid-wicket, who dived forward to take an excellent catch.

Soon the off-spinner was on a hat-trick, much to the annoyance of Kumar Sangakkara. He was given out caught-behind to Swann's next delivery and one did not have to be an expert in body language to register Sangakkara's opinion of the umpire's decision. He loitered at the crease after Steve Davis had raised his finger.

Jeevan Mendis defended the hat-trick ball and was then skittish, slog-sweeping and reverse-sweeping the next two deliveries to the boundary. Mendis and Matthews added 52 rapidly, whereupon Broad also found himself on a hat-trick after dismissing both of them.

Their departure hardly inconvenienced the Sri Lankans, who kept swinging merrily. For England it was business as usual.

Finn was admirable, bowling with sustained hostility — if that is possible in four overs. Swann commanded respect and spun the ball as far as anyone we have seen in Pallekele but Dernbach, for all those subtle variations, was expensive, though it is no picnic bowling the final overs. He did, however, somehow persuade Nuwan Kulasekara to shoulder arms to the final delivery of the Sri Lankan innings.

Dernbach was one of three changes made by England despite their victory over the Kiwis on Saturday. As signalled by Bairstow's Sunday training session with gloves on, Craig Kieswetter was dropped while Ravi Bopara and Patel were brought into the side.

Sri Lanka played their best side but perversely changed captains. This was more than a whim. Captains can be penalised if their team bowls overs too slowly; the ultimate penalty is to be compelled to miss a match. So the solution is to change the captain. It was Sangakkara who tossed up with Broad but later he did not appear to be the man making the field changes.